Ukraine Ceasefire: Kiev and rebels reach ceasefire agreement as NATO ratchets up a Spearhead attack force

kraine Ceasefire: Kiev  and rebels reach ceasefire agreement as NATO ratchets up a Spearhead attack force: From left to right:- Former Ukrainian president Leonid Kuchma, representative of self proclaimed "People Republic of Donetsk", Prime Minister Alexander Zakharchenko, OSCE envoy Heidi Tagliavini, Russian Ambassador to the Ukraine Mikhail Zurabov, rebel leader of "People Republic of Lugansk" Igor Plotnitsky make an official statement on the signing of a ceasefire agreement in Minsk, on September 5, 2014. (AFP Photo)

Kiev officials and representatives of the two self-proclaimed republics in southeastern Ukraine have agreed to a ceasefire, as the contact group met behind closed doors in Belarus.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has confirmed the ceasefire agreement on his Twitter account.

The truce agreement comes into force starting 6 pm local time (15:00 GMT).

The president has ordered to cease fire starting at the time stated in the protocol.


“I give the order to the chief of the General staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces to cease fire, starting from 18.00 [local time] on September 5,” Poroshenko's statement says.

Poroshenko then called on both the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry and the OSCE to provide international monitoring of compliance with the bilateral ceasefire.

“We must do everything possible and impossible to stop bloodshed and put an end to people’s suffering,”the president said in a statement posted on his official website.

Poroshenko expressed hope that both sides would comply with the ceasefire agreement.

The self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic earlier confirmed the ceasefire agreement on its official Twitter account.

Both Donetsk and Lugansk have said they are ready to lay down arms starting from 15:00GMT.

Representatives of the rebel forces have said they will obey the ceasefire if Kiev follows suit.

“Most of the points of the protocol correspond with our demands,” Lugansk’s leader Igor Plotnitsky said.

“However, the ceasefire does not mean a shift from our course of breaking away from Ukraine. This is a compulsory measure,” he said.

The OSCE’s Heidi Tagliavini has welcomed the agreement saying “it is good news.”

She has revealed that the protocol consists of 12 points, and “the ceasefire is the chief one.”

The participants in the talks will prepare another document - a memorandum on settling the situation in Ukraine, a Donetsk representative said.

The two sides accompanied by representatives of Russia and the OSCE were meeting in the Belorussian capital, Minsk, in an attempt to end the bloodshed in eastern Ukraine.

In their recent phone call on September 3, the presidents of Russia and Ukraine, Vladimir Putin and Petro Poroshenko, showed a willingness to find an agreement to resolve the months-long conflict in the southeastern Ukraine.

Following the conversation with his counterpart, President Putin laid out a seven-point plan that could help find a solution.

Meanwhile, in an apparent move to put more pressure on Russia, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) has established a new attack force known as the Spearhead Force that would re-position NATO from a defensive to an offensive organisation. The 3500 capacity force would be ready to deploy between 2 to five days.

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• Ukraine Ceasefire: Putin Squeezes Ukrainian government with 7 point demands

-Additional information from RT

Published on 05/09/2014 15:26 Greenwich Mean Time